Governor hopes to bring an ER back to North Baton Rouge

BATON ROUGE - Governor John Bel Edwards announced he hopes to bring an emergency room back to the North Baton Rouge area.

Edwards made the remarks at a health care summit at Pennington Biomedical Research Center Tuesday morning. The governor suggested Medicaid expansion could lead the way in returning emergency services to the community.

There is no emergency room facilities between Lane Regional Medical Center in Zachary and Baton Rouge General and Our Lady of the Lake in the Essen/Bluebonnet area. Baton Rouge General had operated an ER at its Mid City facility until closing it in 2015.

BRG has said it is looking to reinvent the Mid City campus into a specialty center and further develop empty land around the Bluebonnet campus. Last week, BRG and Ochsner Health System announced a deal to form a partnership to operate hospitals and clinics int he Baton Rouge area. Ocshner runs a hospital in the far eastern side of East Baton Rouge.

In 2013, the state closed and later demolished the charity hospital Earl K. Long in North Baton Rouge

The governor did not provide many specifics on the plan Tuesday morning. He was unavailable for a more in-depth interview about the possibility later Tuesday.

"The governor was referring to preliminary talks he has had about the emergency room and it is too early to discuss any (specific) details right now," a spokesperson for the governor said.